No regrets for Olympic curlers

11:00, 26 February 2014

ByDailyrecord.co.uk

The men’s team fought through a play-off match and a tough semi-final before coming up short against Canada in the final while the women’s bounced back from losing their semi-final to clinch the bronze medal play-off place.

David Murdoch and Eve Muirhead have been looking back at a thrilling Winter Olympics in Sochi when they brought back silver and bronze to Great Britain.

The men’s team fought through a play-off match and a tough semi-final before coming up short against Canada in the final while the women’s bounced back from losing their semi-final to clinch the bronze medal play-off place.

David
made no attempt to hide his disappointment but would have almost certainly have taken a silver a few weeks ago, after his two previous appearances at the Winter Olympics ended in such disappointment.

“I’ve
chased this medal for such a long time but it’s always a strange feeling when you lose a final, it takes some time to get over the disappointment of not getting the gold,” said David.

“We’ve dedicated a lot of hard years work into this and made a lot of sacrifices and a silver medal is still super cool.”

He
admitted a slow start cost his team - Michael Goodfellow, Scott Andrews, Greg Drummond and alternate Tom Brewster - and he also appeared to struggle with the ice conditions, which were quicker and swung more than previous matches.

“The disappointing thing is the manner of the defeat,” added Murdoch. “You don’t mind so much to lose when you perform well but we allowed them to dominate.

“We were in a lot of trouble early on and it was always going to be a Herculean task to get back into it.”

While
David contemplates whether or not to go for a fourth Olympics, Eve Muirhead and her rink could well be GB’s representatives in Korea in 2018.

The skip, alongside Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams, Claire Hamilton and alternate Lauren Gray, was devastated after a semi-final defeat to Canada meant there would be no gold to add to their world title.

“To lose a semi-final at the Olympics and then come back and play for bronze is extra tough, “said Eve.

“It’s
just a huge relief. Maybe I come across quite stern faced and focused but inside I’m not as hard as everyone likes to think I am. It’s tough out there, mentally and physically.”

“We’re a young team with a lot of time ahead of us.

“We’re the youngest team here, our average age is 23 and we’ve got a big future ahead of us.

“Curling gets a lot of attention every four years and for us to increase that, we’ve got to win medals.”